Kemah

Last weekend, Mr. Yardbird and I took the kids to Kemah boardwalk for a mini-vacation. We had not stayed in a hotel together since we practically lived in one for a year when Jason worked in Beaumont.

It brought back all of our hotel memories including the smell of complimentary breakfast in the morning, watered down coffee, and Ham's love for the hotel luggage cart (which he likes to call the "rectangle thing with the two H's")

We also remembered how hard it was to get Ham to sleep in a hotel room. :)

...and how creative he can get when he gets bored in a hotel room.

For example the "water tank" he made from pillows.

When we got to the Boardwalk we had to check out the helicopters the Army brought out for Veteran's Day.

Ham said when he gets "big, big, bigger" he's going to fly this helicopter.

Then we went to buy tickets for the rides and someone was so excited he couldn't stand it.

And Hattie was happy being Hattie, rides or no rides.

We took turns riding rides with Ham.

Mr. Yardbird squeezed in a few moments to admire some sailboats.

 

 

...and all in all we had really nice time in Kemah!

So Sorry!

After I picked Ham up from school today, I dumped out the contents of his school bag to see if there was anything in there that needed to be signed and returned to school, any makeup work, etc.

A folded up fan rolled out and bag of Hershey kisses.

They must have rewarded him with the bag of chocolate and I'm guessing he picked the fan from the treasure chest.

I don't know why it makes me smile, but I picture in my head Ham choosing a fan as his must-have and it makes me chuckle a little.

I told him he could eat his chocolate in the playroom while I feed the baby.

About ten minutes later, Ham runs in like it's a complete emergency, throws his hands in the air and screams "I ate it ALL! ALL of the chocolate! and.....I didn't SHARE!"

His eyes are big as saucers.

"Who were you going to share it with, Ham?"

"YOU!....I'm so sorry!"

"That's okay, Hammy." I said. But it made me feel good that he thought of me after he ate the last one.

Later on, I went to the playroom to check on him and I wrapped my arms around him to give him a big hug.

"When did you get so big!" I said. "I can't really hold you anymore."

We hugged for a minute or two before Ham pulled back to look at me in the face.

"I'm so sorry I got so big, Mommy. One day I will get little again so you can hold me."

Sigh.

Speaking of kids getting so big so fast.

Hattie is now 5 months!

And while she hasn't yet created funny stories like Ham has, we are already seeing a great sense of humor, so who knows!

At 5 months - Hattie is laughing till she hiccups (a trait Ham and she share), she thinks putting her pjs on is hilarious, and she has finally stopped flirting with every air vent in the house. That was getting out of control. She is a super big sweetheart and so easygoing. And she think Ham hung the moon and Ham is not going to disagree with her on that.

Pumpkin Patch and Trunk or Treat

Halloween is my favorite holiday. Not for the ghost or goblins but for the pumpkins, fall, cool weather, candy and costumes.

It takes me back to Halloween at my Aunt Carrie's house where we skipped from house to house on cracked sidewalks in the dark. Then we poured big bags of candy on the floor on her living room and began sorting and counting all the candy to see who got the most.

Last weekend we went with Mama B to the ultimate pumpkin patch where we experienced a really amazing version of Halloween complete with a sand pit, giant slide, tire mountain, tiny town, train, live music, homemade ice-cream, pumpkin patch and million other things at the Mitchell Peanut Farm.

Here's a recap:

 

It may be Hattie's first Boo but don't mess with her

Ham working extra hard on his serious face or contemplating what kind of candy he will trade his sister for.

 

 

 

 

And today Ham had a Trunk or Treat. It was our first time so I had to google to make sure I did my part of the deal. Ten minutes before it started I prayed there was still a spot in the parking lot for Hattie and I. There was and I, very swiftly, went to work making my car look Halloween festive. 

Not too shabby
 

 And like any good second time mom, I handed off my daughter to a complete stranger in the next parking spot and said "Hold her while I decorate."
 

 

 Then I found some time to get the stroller out and hope that she's big enough to sit like this in it.
 

She is.
 
It's ironic that she's Rapunzel with no hair to throw down. Sorry Hattie, it's true.
 
And then the kids came walking by...
 
...with Ham in his racecar outfit. And I almost forgot about the big argument we had about the Paw Patrol costume he wanted then refused to wear this morning. Thank goodness for thrift store backup costumes.
 

 
Okay I'll forget about it. This costume is cooler. Way cooler.
 

 
And then we went inside to make a craft and eat.
 

 

 which we were really THRILLED about.

 
Really, really thrilled about.

 
And we went home and poured out all of our candy and toys and found two neat books in the stash which I thought was clever and awesome.

 
And I forced them to take one more picture, because it's my job to aggravate them.

 
 

 

 

 

Boy sister

There are days when I feel like a parenting pro and there are still days when I feel like I'm just doing what I can to get by.

Sometimes for peace and quiet I have these really inventive ideas to keep Ham busy. Like yesterday when I gave him a little bit of flour to put in his kitchen mixer.

"Now don't spill it," I told him.

Before I knew it, he was tugging on my clothes telling me he needed "baking soda". I look down at a child who has flour in his hair, clothes and eyelashes.

 I don't want to know what kind of flour explosion is going on in the playroom but I make myself go look.

Here's what I found. -------------------------->

Besides finding productive ways to occupy a three year old, I also find inventive ways to get him to eat his dinner.

Sometimes, he dances while I shovel food into his mouth. Sometimes we pretend he is a robot eating his dinner. Really, it's whatever works at the time.

Last night, between bites he said, " Now you need to eat your dinner, mommy."

"I am."

"You need to eat all your dinner so we can put a baby back in your belly." I stopped shoveling food and put the fork down.

"I want a boy sister now." he said.

Hmmph.

Sitting at Home Mom

Recently, I bumped into a former student's mom and she asked me if I was "sitting at home" now and I think my eyes started to twitch a little when I nodded my yes. Yes, I'm staying at home. No I'm not sitting. I'm sitting now writing this blog, but no not sitting, not most of the time anyway.

Staying at home is a whole different survival story than my working with kid days. Both equally hard and exhausting.

I survive the week thanks to Mother's Day Out. Oh, how I could kiss those MDO teachers' feet.

But getting to and from MDO is like a marathon in itself.

Like this morning for example. I'll tell you as I drink my three hour old, cold coffee. Yes, that cup I couldn't locate in the morning mayhem. The one that took me twenty minutes to locate tucked behind a picture frame on the bookshelf.

Rewind to this morning -
My eyes pop open at 7:50 am. I feel like a sardine. Why can't I move? Oh yes. I am the white stuff of an oreo smashed together by Hattie and Ham. I remember when she woke up, but where did he come from?

Ham rolls over and says the first of thirty "It's time to get up." He is my personal alarm clock. He's really the boss of me in general. Or at least it seems that way anyway.

I roll out of bed and leave Hattie. She could use some sleep ....someone should enjoy a sleep in.

And then I make and enjoy my coffee, and then I get everything that Ham needs so I can enjoy my coffee in peace. Like waffles, syrup, milk and his favorite tv show.

8:10 am -  Then I take three sips of my coffee while kind of sitting down briefly and then I realize I didn't wash Ham's school shirt and I throw my coffee down, run to the washer, realize I did wash it and throw it in dryer. Is there time for it to dry?

8:15 am - Then I sit down for one more sip of the coffee and I realize Hattie is up. Do I have time to feed her or should I wait until after I drop him off? After it is. I start to change her clothes and diaper.  I hear a voice from the kitchen.

"I need a wittle more syrup" Ham says. I have every intention of getting that for him but I am lost in trying to figure out where I put the diapers I just bought while worrying that Hattie will pee all over her bed during my rush to find them.

And I pass Ham in the kitchen and gasp. "I got the syrup" he says. Oh, and did he. He is covered in syrup from head  to toe. Literally, the plate is overflowing with syrup that he is drinking. Two thoughts cross my mind - juvenile diabetes and we can't reuse his socks from yesterday because they have syrup all over them.

8:30 am - I'm back to the baby and I'm throwing clothes on her. I put her on her play mat and start wiping Ham down. Dryer school shirt is thrown on him and I tell him he doesn't have to wear socks today.

I see a meltdown forming on his face. Is this the kid that refused to wear socks, and is now refusing to go WITHOUT socks? I can't keep up.

I find some socks and he starts complaining about them. But that's okay because I throw his shoes on in record speed and I begin the conga dance. Yep, that's what I did to distract him from the idea that he HATES those socks. I invent a conga dance to make him forget all about it and head to the door. Because now it's 8:45 am and we are so close to being really late. The conga dance is going great till he face plants in the living room.

8:50 am - There is no time for tears in this morning rush, so I scoop him up. I locate Hattie who has rolled under the coffee table. Put her in the carrier and head out the door. Surprisingly, Ham insists on helping me carry the baby carrier. And what mom of the year refuses her three year old's kind offer. I didn't. So I'm half wobbling like a troll while I allow Ham to help me carry the carrier down the steps and to the car.

8:55 am - I speed around the corner pull up at MDO looking like I haven't had time to run a brush through my hair, put my contacts in or change my clothes from yesterday and I hand over my child. They've seen me in a worse state I know. Like the time, I forgot to re-button my shirt after nursing Hattie minutes before I picked Ham up from school. I'm thankful that all the teachers, including the entire carpool line ignored what I didn't realize I was showing.

So yes, I'm a sitting at home mom now. But trust me it's never a dull moment.

Pumpkins and Wasp Friends

The weather is finally cooling down and it was time for us to carve our Halloween pumpkin. I think it's been twenty + years since I've down this and in my mind I thought it would be way more complicated then it actually was.

Hattie dozed off in her seat while Ham and I set to work on cleaning out the pumpkin.

I carefully carved around the top and let Ham do the honors of taking the top off.

He was amazed and disgusted.

I gave him a spoon and showed him how to scoop out the yuck from the inside of the pumpkin.

It lasted for all of five minutes before Ham decided he had enough. "You do it." He said, "That's gross."

 

So I scooped it all out and started to carve out the face. In no time the pumpkin looked like this:

 

I told Ham we needed to put a candle inside to light it up. "It's a birthday cake? We're going to eat it?" he asked.

 

 

 

"No, we need to light it up so everyone can see him smile tonight. You'll see." I said.

So that's what we did. We ate dinner got ready for bed and Hattie passed out before bedtime stories could even start.

"Let's go check out the pumpkin." I said.

We leapt up and ran out the door in our pjs and bare feet.

I snapped a picture and we headed back to bed.

 

And as we crawled into bed we realized that Ham had stepped on a wasp.

 

I know, I know....how do we realize that so long after coming inside? I have no idea. What I do know is that it quickly escalated into the one of the most epic meltdowns in Ham's history.

 

When all had calmed down and before he drifted off to sleep, I told Ham I would go outside, find that wasp and spank his behind.

 

"No, don't he said." "He's my friend."

 

"He's your friend!? He bit you. What kind of friend does that?" I asked.

 

But he insisted they were friends all the same and he made me promise not to go out looking for his friend, wasp.

 

I promised.

 

 



 

 

 

Coloring

 Last night, Ham and I were getting ready for bed and I realized he hadn't done his homework.

Apparently 3 year old Mother's Day Out programs have homework.

I can already tell that we are going to be those last minute, doing our  homework on the way to school people.

Oh well.

I grabbed some crayons and pencil and walked him through it.

I tell him to color the pictures that start with the same sound the letter A makes. He looks at me like I have four heads.

"The letter A makes the "Ahh" sound," I tell him. "Does baseball start with the "Ahh" sound?"

He shakes his head yes. I narrow my eyes on him and his nod turns into a no.

"What about alligator?"

He searches my eyes for the right answer. He nods yes.

This all feels a little much for a three year old.

"Well, let's color the alligator." He grabs a crayon and colors the alligator and the two inch space surrounding it.

And as he is coloring, I zone out for a minute and I blurt out that I don't like coloring. I mean really when I was a kid I couldn't stand it. But, I don't know why I'm telling him that.

"You don't like coloring?" He's shocked.

"No, not really," I admit.

"Why? Did your teacher scream at you?"

Memories come flooding back of my coloring days when the best  colorers were singled out in class. The teacher would marvel over their gloriously neat work and I would look at my scribble scratch coloring job that took me two seconds wondering who has time for all of that.

"No." (They just loaded us with guilt.)

"Did she tell you take your box out and you wouldn't listen?" he asks.

"No I just had a hard time coloring in the lines." (That's an understatement)
  
"Oh. You didn't like coloring and they told you to color?"

"Yes."

He thinks for a minute.

"You go to school and you listen." He tells me. He's pretty irritated that he has a mom that might not be doing what she is supposed to in school.

"You are right. I should have listened."

"Did they scream at you?" he asks again. Ham thinks that any kind of correction is "screaming".

"I guess they got mad when I didn't want to color."

"I'll talk to them for you." He says. "I'll tell them to be nice to my mommy."

"Thanks, Hammy."